When Time Collides

Chapter Twenty One

Hiccup

Hiccup learnt soon after he'd taken off that following a single snowflake, regardless of its purplish colour and larger size, is near darn impossible.

You couldn't have made it any larger, could you Elsa? Hiccup grumbled as he squinted to make it out in the distance.

Toothless wasn't having any trouble keeping up of course, but the wind swirled the snowflake about in multitude of directions, and their path was a bit haphazard as the pair made sure to keep the snowflake in sight and in check always.

" Elsa couldn't have asked the wind to go easy on us, could she?" Hiccup grumbled lightly, leaning forward and patting the side of Toothless' neck. Toothless made a small indignant snicker of agreement.

Hiccup raised his gaze back to the messenger-snowflake just as a strong gust of wind sent it hurtling in a rapid spiral towards the ground.

Hiccup gave a cry of surprise, and angled his foot, setting Toothless' tail in the second setting so that they could follow. Hiccup battled the wind futilely in an effort to open his eyes and have his gaze focus without his hair flicking his eyes or catching and sticking to his eyelashes.

Toothless slowed, spreading his wings so that they rose sharply, and the fierce wind slowed. Hiccup brushed away his hair and blinked to refresh his dry eyes as he sought for the purple shape of ice he'd been tasked to follow.

When the wind, and hence their journey, slowed to a more manageable pace, Hiccup pulled out his compass, and the parchment containing his map.

The location of the Tooth Palace on his map had thrown him for a while, until he recognised the yellow mountain range of Wheezing Grunt -and the name had come curtesy of Toothless. ( it just really goes to show how horrible a decision Hiccup made when he let the illiterate dragon come up with the place names. )

He then tracked their ( meaning his and Toothless' ) movement following the path of the snowflake, to place him somewhere close to the coast of Asia. He could not only taste the ocean salt in his mouth and smell it in his nose, but see the first beginnings of its colour across the horizon. It's periwinkle blue a darker reflection of the clouded, Copenhagen sky.

Hiccup eyed the sky, squinting when the sun peeked out from between two cirrus cloud forms. He frowned as something occurred to him. Will the snowflake melt in the sun and the heat?

Hiccup watched the snowflake more closely as he continued following it, searching for any signs of shimmering or melting. To his relief, he couldn't find any, even minutes of it being caught in the sunlight.

That's some magic, Hiccup thought.

After Hiccup and Toothless had long disappeared from sight over the mountain tops, Merida took to wandering the grounds of the Tooth Palace; admiring the handiwork of the hanging tapestries, the gilded stair cases and the textile paints. She thought that the paintings, coloured depictions of the Tooth Fairy in individual cultures and retold stories of her beginnings.

With a mild surprise, Merida stumbled upon a rocky alcove in the mountain, where a beautifully entangled cherry blossom tree hung delicately over a serene body of water.

Grassy plots of ground much like stepping stones dotted the water, like a field of hopscotch that lead to a mural painted across the far stone wall. The colours here appeared much older, and though it's colours still appeared vibrant, the style and atmosphere rendered within the painting was dated.